Grammar Moses: I racked my brain to come up with this wreck of a column

When the Chicago area was blanketed recently by not only a wet, sloppy snow, but also by power outages, Bev Cherney of Kildeer spent part of the more than 50 hours her home was turning into a refrigerator thinking about words. Clearly, the electrical system in her brain was humming along just fine. “Your recent columns on homophones coupled with the weekend snowstorm got me thinking about a group of similar words,” she wrote once the furnace came back on. “Although they are not homophones, they are similar enough to be confusing. What is the appropriate usage for ‘wreak,’ ‘wrack,’ ‘wreck’ and ‘rack?'” Before I could answer her, she gave me this example: “The recent snowstorm wreaked havoc on the Chicago area. Heavy snow and ice wracked the power lines, which wrecked my home’s electrical supply along with my sump pump. As I raced towels to the basement in the dark, I fell down the stairs and racked my ankle. Do I have this right?” First, let’s define these words: • Wreak: to punish or avenge. One wreaks havoc or vengeance. In Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus,” the eponymous Roman general says, “We will solicit heaven, and move the gods to send down Justice for to wreak our wrongs.” • Wreck: to destroy. • Wrack: synonymous with wreck. • Rack: to torture by stretching (ala a medieval rack.) Something nerve-racking is psychologically torturous. Can you imagine a wooden rack so small that it could stretch nerves? I clearly can envision an army… [Read full story]